


backstage

by Crollalanza



Series: Sports Fest 2018 Haikyuu!! [11]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M, Theatre AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-06-01 07:47:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15138479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crollalanza/pseuds/Crollalanza
Summary: Prompt:TIME: first datePLACE: the ticketing booth





	backstage

**Author's Note:**

> This actually happened to some friends of mine on their first date (although I changed the play). They're married now.

It was an incongruous start to a date, but when he’d received the text from Akaashi saying he’d been asked to work an hour more, Akinori thought he might as well saunter up to his place of work and wait for him. It wasn’t as if he’d stand out, as he was known to the other members of staff, and it wasn’t like this was anything other than a casual ‘let’s-grab-coffee sometime’ type of invitation (even if he’d been screwing up his courage to ask for weeks now).

In black jeans and a pale blue shirt, Akinori hope he looked relaxed. Moderately pleased with his hair, he swept it off his face then let it fall back at least three times as he approached the theatre, taking  a deep breath as he wandered in.

Akaashi Keiji was in the ticketing booth, dealing at that moment with an agitated woman and a clutch of kids demanding sweets and drinks.

“Have you ever tried taking five children to the toilets at the same time?” she was saying, her voice shrill. “I need to be near the aisle!”

“I can’t reallocate your tickets, Madam,” Akaashi replied, his voice patient but with a slight rip of speed to it. “The performance is sold out.”

“But we’re in the centre of a row. Surely it will annoy the other members of the audience if I’m having to get up every five minutes with one of them?”

“The audience is mainly children,” Akaashi said, not turning a hair. “It is a family show, so I’m sure everyone will understand.” Then catching Akinori’s eye, he gave a slight smile. “Please accept these free programme vouchers.”

Mollified, possibly by the fact that Akaashi’s smile, even a half one, was pretty devastating, the mother sighed, took the vouchers, then harried the children through the doors and towards the refreshment stand.

“I won’t be long,” Akaashi said as Akinori approached. “And you didn’t _have_ to meet me here.”

“Ah, I was close by,” Akinori replied. “Busy day?”

“Not especially. Always that last flurry of customers before the show starts, and not helped by Komi calling in sick.”

“Is he?” Akinori asked, sounding innocent.

Akaashi gave him a look. “Pretty sure he has an audition, but I suspect you already know that.”

“He might have mentioned it,” Akinori said idly.

“You and your housemate don’t talk?” Akaashi queried.

“Well, yes … we do, but it’s not like I thought it would impact you.”

He looked around, anything to change the subject because this first date/grabbing coffee/whatever was not getting off to the most auspicious start.

Then Akaashi gave another smile. “It hasn’t really. Onaga’s coming in earlier, and he’s pleased to get the overtime.” He rolled his shoulders, then stretched them out over his head. “This … um … date.”

“Uh… yeah.” Akinori swallowed. “Look, I understand if you’re tired or … um … I don’t know… if you’d rather it was just coffee, then, yeah, that’s cool with me, too and—”

“I was going to say, could we go for a walk instead?” Akaashi replied. “Only I worked through lunch, and I’ve forgotten what daylight looks like. If th-that’s all right with you.”

“Oh… yes.” He smiled. “That’s cool.”

 

Outside, once Akaashi had changed from his ‘theatre uniform’ the sun was still bright in the sky. It wasn’t too hot thanks to a breeze whipping around them, so the walk to the park was a pleasant one, and because there was traffic on the roads, it was noisy too making awkward conversation nigh on impossible anyway. It gave them a chance, Akinori thought, to be comfortable walking together, and talking could happen when they’d arrived.

(He wondered briefly if this had been Akaashi’s plan, as Komi had once told him Akaashi always seemed to have three separate scenarios in his head for any occasion.)

“Why did you take the job at the theatre, Akaashi-kun?” he asked when they walked through the park gates. “Is it something you’ve always wanted to do?”

“Be involved in entertainment?” Akaashi considered. “Yes, I suppose so. We used to live on the outskirts of the city, but two or three times a year, my parents would buy tickets to a show and we’d make a day out of it.”

“No plans to tread the boards yourself?”

“Me? No. That’s not my style. Not like Komi-san. He tells me you used to act.”

“I did. I prefer backstage now,” Akinori replied, and hoped he didn’t sound bitter because he wasn’t, but there was always something faintly pathetic about his life, with people would keep telling him he should have stuck at the acting, when actually he’d found his niche among the lights and sound and found he preferred it.

“Tell me about the shows you saw,” he said instead.

“The best one was in the winter,” Akaashi replied. “It was my first show. I was seven or eight, and the theatre was lit up with fairy lights. I thought it was the most amazing thing I’d ever seen.”

“And the show?”

“Peter Pan.  With a beautiful Tinkerbell flying across the stage, a very cross looking Wendy Darling, and a Peter who fought with his sword, leapt around the boat and was … highly dynamic.” He smiled more to himself than Akinori. “Possibly fell in love right then.”

“I remember that show,” Akinori said. “With the lost boys and the ticking crocodile. Hook was amazing!”

“Oh goodness, the lost boys!” Akaashi gasped. “I’d quite forgotten, but one of them fainted on stage. We were right in the front row, and my Mum thought he was going to fall on us. Then another boy, with amazing presence of mind, hauled him offstage by his foot.”

“You were there _that_ night?”

“Um, yes…” Akaashi stared at him. “Why, were you?”

“Uh, yeah, I was on the stage. Child actor and all that!”

Akaashi’s eyes widened. “You weren’t the boy that fainted, were you?”

“No, no, that was a kid called Bokuto Koutarou. Used to get wildly excited before hand, stuff himself with sweets, then had a sugar crash.” He smiled lazily. “You were lucky. He puked backstage after that.”

“So you were…”

“The one who dragged him off.  Not as noticeable.” He coughed, not wanting to be pitied. “I’m still in touch with Koutarou. He’s doing pretty well in action movies. Still loves his sweets, though.”

“And the others?”

“Hmm, well, Tinkerbell now runs a stage school, Wendy Darling really was not a darling at all got married to Hook, then divorced him five years later. Peter Pan…” He winked. “Your first love—”

“Stop it.” Akaashi scowled. “I’m not living this down, am I?”

“Gave up the stage and works for the Tokyo Stock Exchange.” He lowered his voice. “Possibly a shady businessman.”

“He became a pirate!” Akaashi said, sounding shocked, but laughing.

“Yeah.”

“And you…”

“Backroom boy. Nothing special.”

Although they were still walking, Akaashi reached out, touching Akinori’s little finger with his own. “You illuminate them, Konoha-kun. They wouldn’t perform half as well without you.”

 

 

 


End file.
